Evanston elementary education began landmark cutbacks Tuesday when Evanston/Skokie School District 65 School Board officials started laying off a record number of teachers and classroom personnel.

The board on Monday approved the largest set of layoffs in district history: 69 teachers, 26 teaching assistants, four library assistants, four computer assistants and six secretaries.

District human resources officials Tuesday began drafting 109 “reduction-in-force” letters, an action approved Monday night by the school board.

“This wasn’t done without planning or foresight,” District 65 superintendent Hardy Murphy said Tuesday night. “What we’ve done is take a tough budget situation and used it in a way we can improve our instructional core.”

The layoffs represent $1.95 million of a $3.7 million budget reduction, which is expected to balance the district budget by 2005. Without the cuts, District 65 finance chair Greg Klaiber said the school system could be more than $10 million in debt by that time.

For the 2002-2003 fiscal year, however, Klaiber predicted the cuts would create a $1 million surplus, a situation that has drawn the ire of parents, teachers and union officials.

“They are doing some extreme and unnecessary three-year plan,” said John Lalley, president of the teachers union, which withdrew from the district’s morale and public relations committees Monday. “They really created an ugly atmosphere.”

Drama, music, art and foreign language programs were hit hardest, with drama classes for kindergarten through third grade, instrumental music class for third grade and foreign language classes for sixth grade eliminated.

Murphy said core instruction in reading, science, math and social studies would be enhanced by the elimination of other programs.

Time freed up from drama and foreign language programs would be rescheduled to allow more reading and math instruction, he said.

Parents protesting the layoffs Tuesday gathered outside Washington School, circulating a petition to other parents who were dropping off their children.

Parent Melissa Green told one passer-by about construction costs of the district’s new building .

In March 2000, the district undertook a $27.5 million bond referendum to pay for construction of a new administration building and child care center. Those funds cannot be used for operating and payroll costs because Evanston voters approved the funds only for construction.

“They knew this crunch was coming so they passed that first,” said Green, the mother of a 5-year-old student at Washington. “This is at the expense of my daughter’s education.”

Teacher Maggie Revel said she saw her $34,000 salary go up in smoke when a new set of specialized art windows costing more than $30,000 was approved for the building a few weeks ago.

The Washington School art teacher said she is expecting her “R-I-F” letter any day now.

“Last hired, first fired,” she said good naturedly while preparing insect illustrations Tuesday for her 10 a.m. class. The principal of the school told her a few weeks ago her position was among those slated to be cut, but Revel said she is hoping the layoff will be temporary.

Just down the hall, students in Laurel Serleth’s third-grade drama class jumped up and down on the auditorium stage amid sets for the spring play, “Liza Lou & the Yeller Belly Swamp.”

Serleth adapted the script from a children’s book this year. Next year, there will be no spring play and no third-grade drama classes.

“How does red light make you feel?” she asked the students, who were oohing and ahhing about stage lighting effects they were experiencing for the first time.

“It makes me look like I’m on fire,” said a young girl excitedly as she waved her hands back and forth in the glare. “It makes me feel hot.”

Serleth is a tenured teacher so she isn’t being laid off this year, but she said she will have to teach drama at four different schools next year, and the traveling makes a spring production logistically impossible.

A drama teacher in Evanston for more than 17 years, Serleth said the social skills taught by dramatic arts are absent in core curriculum, such as mathematics, reading and science.

“Drama is a social art form that is process-based, not performance-based,” she said.

In drama, art and music, she said there are no right answers.

Some board members said Tuesday night that the same can be said for budget decisions.

“Anytime you make cuts – whether it’s in your home, in the schools or in business – someone’s not going to be satisfied,” board member Hecky Powell said. “You just do the best that you can.”